A History of the Athonite Commonwealth
The Spiritual and Cultural Diaspora of Mount Athos

Explores the role played by Athos in the spread of Orthodoxy and Orthodox monasticism throughout Eastern Europe and beyond.

Graham Speake (Author)

9781108444323, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 June 2018

308 pages, 41 colour illus. 5 maps
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.55 kg

'Before us is a well-conceived, methodologically consistent, and highly readable work which irrevocably ranks its author among the leading authorities on Mount Athos in the West today.' Vladeta Jankovi?, Friends of Mount Athos Annual Report 2018

This book examines the part played by monks of Mount Athos in the diffusion of Orthodox monasticism throughout Eastern Europe and beyond. It focuses on the lives of outstanding holy men in the history of Orthodoxy who have been drawn to the Mountain, have absorbed the spirit of its wisdom and its prayer, and have returned to the outside world, inspired to spread the results of their labours and learning. In a remarkable demonstration of what may be termed 'soft power' in action, these men have carried the image of Athos to all corners of the Balkan peninsula, to Ukraine, to the very far north of Russia, across Siberia and the Bering Strait into North America, and most recently (when traditional routes were closed to them by the curtain of communism) to the West. Their dynamic witness is the greatest gift of Athos to a world thirsting for spiritual guidance.

Part I: 1. Introduction
2. The monastic life
Part II: 3. St Athanasios the Athonite (c.925–1000/1): founder of cenobitic monasticism on Athos
4. The enlighteners of Georgia
5. St Antony (983–1073) and St Theodosius (1035–1074) of Kiev: fathers of Russian monasticism
6. St Sava (1175–1236): illuminator of Serbia
7. St Gregory of Sinai (c.1265–1346): initiator of the 'Hesychast International'
8. St Gregory Palamas (1296–1359): champion of hesychasm on Athos
9. St Theodosius of Trnovo (c.1300–1363) and the Bulgarian school of hesychasm
10. St Nikodimos of Tismana (1320–1406): transmitter of hesychasm to Wallachia
11. St Sergius of Radonezh (1314–1392) and St Nil Sorsky (c.1433–1508): revivers of Russian monasticism
12. St Maximos the Greek (c.1470–1556): enlightener of Russia
13. St Kosmas the Aetolian (1714–1779): teacher of the Greek nation, apostle to the Albanians
14. St Paisy Velichkovsky (1722–1794): reviver of hesychasm
15. St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain (1749–1809): editor of the Philokalia
16. Athos and the West
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Orthodox & Oriental Churches [HRCC8], Church history [HRCC2], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]